Tatenen chasing December gold

Owner Andy Stewart is hoping to run Tatenen in the December Gold Cup, a race his family are sponsoring for the third successive year, at Cheltenham on Saturday week.

The �100,000 handicap will be run this year as the Stewart Family Thank You Gold Cup, having previously been run as the Paul Stewart IronSpine Charity Challenge Gold Cup (2012) and the Spinal Research The Atlantic 4 Gold Cup (2011).

Stewart, who won the race twice before with Poquelin in 2009 and 2010, has another live contender after the Richard Rowe-trained Tatenen bounced back to winning form at Newbury on Saturday.

He is also part-owner of another entry, Ghizao, but Paul Nicholls’ inmate is likely to head elsewhere.

“I’ll have to have a chat with Richard about it, and obviously we need to see how he comes out of the race, but I’d sooner run him in a race we sponsor than any other,” said Stewart.

“Don’t forget he was favourite for the Arkle as a novice and it’s been about coaxing the ability out of him.

“We’ve also got Ghizao in there but he’s likely to go for the Peterborough Chase (Huntingdon) instead.

“I’ve been lucky enough to win it twice with Poquelin and we’re sponsoring it as a way of saying thank you to everybody for their donations over the last few years.”

Stewart’s son, Paul, suffered a serious spinal injury in a snowboarding accident in 2008 and was told he would never walk again.

However, he defied the medics by recovering enough to take part in an Ironman challenge which consisted of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile cycle ride, a 26.2-mile walk and culminated in climbing the same Alpine mountain where his injury was incurred.

Paul Stewart said: “The Stewart Family Thank You Gold Cup is to say thank you to all the people who have given me so much support over the years and donated to the charities.

“I’ve had so many cards and people coming up to me at racecourses asking me how I am doing.

“There was tremendous support when I did the IronSpine Challenge and people from all over the world gave money to the charities. The purpose behind this year’s sponsorship is to thank everyone who has been so kind.”

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